


Percy Meets a Girl

by zephsomething



Series: Surviving the War [13]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-03 20:07:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14003715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zephsomething/pseuds/zephsomething
Summary: Percy goes to a ministry party and finds it far more interesting than he'd expected.





	Percy Meets a Girl

**Author's Note:**

> Trying to get back on schedule for this (every 2 weeks), wish me luck!

These days Percy has entirely different reasons for going to all the ministry parties. He went because sometimes Andromeda Tonks was there giving speeches about the things you can do in the name of bravery, in the name of wit or fairness. He went because during the beginning of the war he’d walked the halls of the ministry and gone to the parties, but he hadn’t seen what was coming until it was too late. These days he liked to think he had clearer eyes most of the time.

This particular party though was entirely boring, the speakers were retired ministry workers, and most of the guests were the kind that a few years ago Percy would have trailed on the coattails of and tried to make a good impression. Now they left a bad taste in his mouth. He was wondering when he could make excuses and leave without being entirely rude when he noticed the girl who’s smile reached no where close to her eyes. She was surround by a group who Percy knew had trailed Lucius Malfoy around the ministry singing his praises. He tried to tell himself that was the reason he found himself moving towards her.

“No, no I’m sure my father would have laughed at that joke you’re right.” She nodded but her eyes looked like ice.

“Sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt but I could swear I recognize you?” Percy offered the lie along with his hand easily, he’d spent over a year lying to far scarier crowds.

She looked at him for a moment before breaking into a wide grin that still reached no where near her eyes. “Why yes we went to school together, studied in the library together I think?”

“Yes that’s right.” He grinned back and offered her a hand. “Care to dance? For old times sake?”

“I’d be delighted.” She turned to her crowd with a smile that might pass as apologetic. “If you’ll all excuse me.”

There was a round of nods and murmurs of agreement from the crowd as she took his hand. If they walked rather quickly onto the dance floor who could fault them for it, they were the two youngest people in this crowd after all.

“Thank you for the save, they were starting to grate on me a little.” She spoke quietly as they spun around the floor, exactly the correct distance apart. “We did actually go to school together though, I’m Audrey I was a ravenclaw, a year below you.”

“Explains why I don’t know your name.” Percy shrugged. “Percy Weasley, I was a Gryffindor Prefect, and Headboy.”

“I remember.” Audrey smirked and somehow that expression held more warmth than any smile she’d had previously. “You were quite proud of that.”

“Ah well, you know how Gryffindors are.” He chuckled and she quirked one eyebrow up. “It is funny though, how much those titles used to mean to me. It seems a long time ago now.”

“Well the scale of the world was so much smaller then.” She lifted one shoulder in the most elegant shrug he’d ever seen. “Before those scales were crushed under the weight of a war.”

“That must be it.”

“Must it?”

“Well it makes more sense than most reasons I’ve heard people give.” He sighed and glanced around the room. “And it doesn’t place blame with anyone in particular.”

“Would you rather the explanation place blame?” This time she raised both eyebrows and it was like a gate he hadn’t even know was open had slammed shut.

Percy thought for a moment, a question that big deserved thought after all, before shaking his head. “No, not really. The only thing to blame is a charismatic boy who decided the world should belong to him because he was different.”

“Hmm.” She paused and Percy could almost see her thinking, or rethinking maybe you could never tell with ravenclaws. “What about the systems that allowed the boy to think that way?”

“The systems weren’t set up to reach him in time, at the time.” Percy shrugged, it was so long ago and so little information on it all remained, well that debate didn’t seem to matter as much. At least it didn’t matter much to Percy. “They’ll be better now.”

“How do you know?” A thoughtful frown had appeared on her face.

“Because different people are in charge now, and change is coming.” He twirled her around and leaned a little closer when he pulled her back in. “Can’t you feel it?”

The grin she gave him was all teeth and he could see the cunning tucked into her eyes. “Can you?”

Their dance ended and she stepped back before he had a chance to answer. She didn’t move far away though so he took the opening.

“Walk with me? I promise I’ll get you home before it’s too late.” He held out his hand to her again. “Gryffindor’s honour.”

“Well if it’s a Gryffindor’s honour.” She smirked again and rested her hand on his arm. She led him out of the building and out into the gardens, moving with the stride of someone who knows the ground they’re walking on.

“So what’s your story?” He asked watching the profile of her face as she watched the stars. “The parts you’re willing to tell a virtual stranger anyway.”

“Mine is a long one.” She stared up at the stars for a moment as though contemplating her answer. “You first?”

“As I said I was Prefect and then Headboy, after that I got a job at the ministry ended up as Fudge’s assistant.” He started easily but he felt himself frown as he thought about it. “I was a git in those days, believed to much in all the wrong things you know? Disowned my family for believing Harry and Dumbledore. I didn’t get my act together until that last year, until the very last really. I made it back to them in time for the Battle of Hogwarts, in time to watch my bratty younger brother die laughing at a joke I made.”

After a few minutes of silence Audrey spoke softly. “I know a bit about believing in the wrong things.”

“Yeah?”

“I believed my family would do the right thing.” She sighed and looked down at the garden around them. “Part of me believed it right up until the very end. I’m the only Ravenclaw in my family you know, everyone else was Slytherin. I lost family on both sides of that war.”

“Both?” Percy was so startled he stopped walking and her hand slipped off his arm. She frowned at him, the first time she’d looked at him since they’d come outside. It had never occurred to him that there were families that had been split in that way by the war.

“Yes on both.” There was a spark in her eye that made Percy nervous. “Not all Slytherins are plain evil you know. It’s not that easy.”

“No I know, it’s just, I was surprised that’s all.” He raised his hands, at once both pacifying and defensive. “I just assumed most families had fought together, on the same side.”

“Like you said earlier, Voldemort was a charismatic boy.” She lifted one shoulder again, the spark not quite gone from her eyes. “Split my family right down the center, I had cousins and aunts and uncles on both sides. Mum believed in Dumbledore, had since she was a kid. Dad had been on Voldemort’s side when most people still knew him as Tom. He was a first year when Voldemort was in his sixth. Mum died a year before the Battle of Hogwarts, dad died during it.”

“Were you there?” He asked quietly, not sure if she’s even answer him.

“I’ve never been able to leave a fight if I know which side I stand on.” She nodded and looked up at the stars again, like they might hold answers for her. “I wasn’t part of any group but I knew what was going to happen. I started staying at the hogshead halfway through that school year and I was there when everyone started showing up for the battle. For all I know it was my wand that killed my father, they were still wearing masks after all.”

“For a long time after the battle I blamed myself for my brother’s death.” Percy said it softly. “On bad days sometimes I still do, if only I hadn’t made him laugh he would have seen the curse coming. It’s impossible to know for sure of course. I do know if I hadn’t been there I would have hated myself for it.”

“There is that.” She nodded and took his arm again, got both their feet moving. “Sometimes the harder choice is more worth making.”

He made a noise of agreement as he followed her through the darkened gardens.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> If you like what I write and you want to buy me a coffee for it there's a link on my profile


End file.
